Being a Girl and a Geek

I am a geek. This is something well documented. I love science and books.  I am an absolute cycling geek, I totally geek out about my bicycle.  I play Dungeons and Dragons and have for..uh..more years than I care to admit.  I love video games and was pretty much raised on them.  My mom and dad and I were reading The Hobbit together when I was very young, followed by the Wizard of Oz and many other wonderful fantasy books.

I go to Gen Con and get knighted for playing board games there.  I play zombie LARPs.  I totally geek out about chemistry.  I have a degrees in computer programming and chemical engineering.  My husband and I love to exercise to Just Dance all winter long (I often wonder what the neighbors think when they glance into our windows).

I love anime (Hellsing is my absolute favorite) and our house is stuffed with so many Legos that I wonder how long it will be before we will have to dedicate a whole room to our Legos.  I love comics too.

My dad just sent me a link to this wonderful video about Geek Girls.  Give it a watch and see what you think.

Have I dealt with trouble over being a geek…uh…yeah.  I dealt with trouble in school and guys telling me “That I was only there to find a husband”…which was funny when I kicked their butt on tests and, ironically, married my high school sweetheart.

I’ve dealt with trouble about playing video games.  Being told by guys I only play because my husband plays or being asked if my husband gets me through the tough parts of the games.

I’ve dealt with strangeness in the comic book section when an eerie silence falls as I walk into the comic book store.

Then of course there are the strange stares when I am dressed up as a steampunk zombie hunter for Halloween or wandering around the city wearing cat ears.

But you know what I am having a darn good time being a geek.  I have meet some of the most wonderful and loyal friends being a geek.  And I have gotten to do some incredibly amazing things.

I also have a son now…he has no hope of not being a geek. And you know what, it’s a good way to raise a kid. We play cooperative board games together (strategy/teamwork), we play DnD together (math/reading/teamwork), we do long bike rides together, we build Lego monstrosities together (mechanical engineering), and do chemistry experiments in the kitchen. He’s already meet some other like-minded kids and they get along so well and have so much fun. I do wonder what he will think of all this when he is in his teens, but I guess we will wait and see.

I have been doing a lot of high school visits to promote engineering and a lot of times I am talking to groups of girls.  It is so sad how many girls don’t speak up for themselves and do what they want.  So many of them seem to have given up and stopped trying to be who they want to be.

So geek on girls!  Don’t be who people tell you to be, be who you want to be and who you are comfortable being 🙂  Trust me it’s a heck of a lot more fun even if you get a bit of trouble for it.